Company Hopes To Use Mosquitoes To Administer Vaccines

Mosquitoes usually spread nasty diseases when they bite humans, but thanks to enterprising high schoolers they could be used for a much better purpose. Biotechnology company Provita Pharmaceuticals, which is entirely staffed by under 18s, is working on a project to use mosquitoes as a ‘flying syringe’ to deliver vaccines.

Co.Exist reports that this project is in its early stages, but the company has given a presentation to the FDA and submitted a grant idea to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The company hopes to genetically engineer mosquitoes so they can produce and deliver a vaccine for the West Nile Virus in their saliva. 16 year old Joshua Meier, the CEO of Provita, said:

We can’t really culture mosquitoes in the lab at our high school because that’s dangerous, but we have a research advisor and ideas planned out, and the next step is making a partnership, contacting other places that do have animal facilities.